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"The Responsibility of Intellectuals" is an essay by the American academic
Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky i ...
which was published as a special supplement by ''
The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...
'' on 23 February 1967.


Content

The article was written during the then-ongoing
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
, as news of human rights abuses started to return to the United States, and as the war had increasingly became seen as a quagmire. An attack on the intellectual culture in the U.S., Chomsky argues that it is largely subservient to
power Power most often refers to: * Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work" ** Engine power, the power put out by an engine ** Electric power * Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events ** Abusive power Power may a ...
. He is particularly critical of
social scientist Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of socie ...
s and technocrats, who he argued were providing a
pseudo-scientific Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable claim ...
justification for the crimes of the state in regard to the Vietnam War. He notes that those who opposed the war on moral rather than technical grounds are "often psychologists, mathematicians, chemists, or philosophers, ... rather than people with
Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
contacts, who, of course, realize that 'had they a new, good idea about Vietnam, they would get a prompt and respectful hearing' in Washington." The topic was inspired by articles of
Dwight Macdonald Dwight Macdonald (March 24, 1906 – December 19, 1982) was an American writer, editor, film critic, social critic, literary critic, philosopher, and activist. Macdonald was a member of the New York Intellectuals and editor of their leftist mag ...
published after the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
who "asks the question: To what extent were the German or Japanese people responsible for the atrocities committed by their governments? And, quite properly, ... turns the question back to us: To what extent are the British or American people responsible for the vicious terror bombings of civilians, perfected as a technique of warfare by the Western democracies and reaching their culmination in
Hiroshima and Nagasaki The United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the on ...
, surely among the most unspeakable crimes in history." The article brought Chomsky to public attention as one of the leading American intellectuals in the movement against the Vietnam war. In February 2017, on the 50th anniversary of the publication of ‘The Responsibility of Intellectuals’, a conference was held at
University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...
. In 2019, a book based on this conference was published entitled, ''The Responsibility of Intellectuals: Reflections by Noam Chomsky and others after 50 years'' and edited by three Chomsky biographers, Nicholas Allott, Chris Knight and Neil Smith.
University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...
attempted to impose restrictions on what could be said at the book launch. Chomsky described this as an ‘utter outrage’ and the restrictions were eventually dropped.Mike Cushman
‘UCL attack on Academic Freedom’
''Free Speech on Israel''; Matthew Reisz
''Times Higher Education Supplement'', 24 October 2019


See also

*
Intellectual responsibility Intellectual responsibility (also known as epistemic responsibility) is a philosophical concept related to that of epistemic justification. According to Frederick F. Schmitt, "the conception of justified belief as epistemically responsible belief h ...
– the more general concept found in philosophy


References


External links

* at ''
The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...
''
Letter in response by George Steiner; reply by Noam Chomsky.
March 23, 1967.

April 20, 1967. * ttp://www.nybooks.com/articles/12102 Letter in responseby
Raziel Abelson Raziel Abelson (24 June 1921 – 14 June 2017) was an American academic. He served as Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at New York University and was a proponent of the Ordinary Language School of Philosophy. Biography He was born in Brooklyn, ...
. April 20, 1967. {{DEFAULTSORT:Responsibility of Intellectuals, The Works by Noam Chomsky 1967 essays Works originally published in The New York Review of Books Essays about politics Works about intellectuals